Hypodermic needles are used extensively in the fields of medicine, dentistry, surgery and veterinary medicine for the purpose of injecting or withdrawing fluids into or from blood vessels, subcutaneous tissue and other body spaces or cavities. The needle proper is characterized by being of elongated extremely slender tubular construction having a sharp end and an opposite connecting end for releasable connection to a syringe, cartridge or flexible tubing and the like. When not in use, the needle proper is covered by a protective cap in order to prevent accidental injury or contamination.
For the most part, needles are intended for one-time use although there are situations where the needle must be injected more than once into the same patient. For example, it is common for an anethesiologist to make several injections of the same drug into an intravenous access port during a surgical procedure. Dentists and surgeons often reinject a local anesthetic several times during the course of a procedure. Between injections, it is imperative that the protective cap or cover be replaced on the sharp end of the needle in order to protect the clinician from accidental puncture wounds from the needle point as well as to prevent inadvertent contact of the needle with non-sterile surfaces.
The process of recapping a needle is inherently dangerous and poses a significant risk to the clinician. The cap is not much larger in diameter than the needle point itself and in the past it has not been uncommon for the needle point to miss the cap opening and puncture the clinician's hand. This can cause infection of the clinician with the patient's disease and, for example, hepatitis and AIDS can be transmitted in this manner. The risk is so high that several private and governmental organizations have issued policies which either prohibit recapping of a needle or limit its use to situations where some other protective device is employed.
Numerous protective devices have been proposed for use in recapping a needle. Tweezers and hemostats have been used to hold the cap while the needle is reinserted. Although such instruments effectively keep the clinician's hand away from the cap, they are relatively expensive and cumbersome and have not been in widespread use. The cap can also be laid on a horizontal surface, such as, a counter or tray and scooped up with the needle. This requires even greater coordination and requires a second step in which the cap is securely pressed in place. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,562 to J. T. Vernon, a handle is provided with a series of different sized openings in which a cap can be inserted, the openings being dimensioned to grippingly engage the cover or cap. The handle requires a pair of spaced plates and a slotted end to receive a cover. However, loading of the cap into the plate requires time and a degree of manual dexterity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,514 to S. A. D'Addezio also employs a platelike hand tool having an opening for releasable insertion of a cap for protecting a needle. Here the opening size is regulated by a scissors-like handle and again the cap is grippingly engaged in the opening. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,717,386 to J. Simmons and 4,919,656 to J. Bracker et al also employ plate-like handles with some form of a gripping means for engaging the cap to protect the user from pricking in the course of recapping the needle. Other representative patents of interest in this field are Letters U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,737,149 to T. A. Gillilan, 4,742,910 to C. R. Staebler, 4,850,976 to W. P. Heinrich et al, 4,892,522 to T. Suzuki et al, 4,900,309 to F. Netherton et al and 4,906,235 to C. W. Roberts.
In accordance with the present invention, it is proposed to overcome a number of drawbacks and disadvantages of prior art recapping devices in providing a low-cost, compact recapping device which is conformable for use with virtually any type or size of needle and cap and which reduces the number of steps and degree of manual dexterity required for handling and recapping of the needle, and can be used for uncapping as well.
In this regard, it is important that the device be sufficiently compact as to conveniently fit in the hand and can be placed on most instrument trays or can be carried by the clinician so as to be readily available for use when needed.